GBC History

GBC’s Concept – An Action Committee

For six decades the Greater Baltimore Committee, the region’s premier organization of business and civic leaders, has focused the resources of its broad membership on the key issues relating to business climate and quality of life in Greater Baltimore.

The GBC was organized on January 5, 1955 as an action committee designed to mobilize the commercial, industrial and professional leadership of Baltimore to bring about tangible and rapid improvements in the community.

In the 1950s, Baltimore’s waterfront reflected the state of its downtown area. Once teeming with commerce, the city’s waterfront was decimated, characterized by vacant warehouses and the city’s formerly thriving downtown retail district was losing customers to the suburbs.

Impressed by the success of Pittsburgh, Pa. in turning its abandoned riverfront industrial district through a private-public partnership called the Allegheny Conference, a group of Baltimore’s leading businessmen organized the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC).

The GBC’s first urban renewal committee chairman was James W. Rouse. In the GBC’s first annual report, Rouse put forward an elementary concept for convincing private investors and government to work together on downtown revitalization.

“To revive the city, its most precious resource – land – must be put back to work with bold planning, better organization, and a much faster pace.”

GBC raised money from members and created a planning council to assist the city government in developing a first project and a long-term plan for revitalizing downtown Baltimore.

1959 – Charles Center, GBC’s First Transforming Project

The GBC leaders decided to focus on making a major thrust against downtown’s most immediate challenge: the deteriorating retail district. It developed plans for a 33-acre midtown site that lay directly between the city’s retail and financial districts. In 1959, the City Council adopted the Charles Center project as an official urban renewal plan.

1964 – Baltimore’s Waterfront, GBC Nurtures a Grand Rebirth

Once the Charles Center project was well underway, Baltimore Mayor Theodore McKeldin called for the redevelopment of 240 acres toward the waterfront. In 1964, David Wallace, a renowned architect who had worked with the GBC’s planning committee on the Charles Center project, produced a plan for a 30-year, $260-million effort to redevelop the harbor’s edge.

The Greater Baltimore Committee successfully campaigned for voter approval of bonds to pay for the first steps in redeveloping the Inner Harbor. The GBC played a leading role in the creation and support of Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management, Inc., which managed the development of the projects that came to be known as “Baltimore’s Renaissance.”

1965 – Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management, Inc. is Born

Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management, Inc. was created to manage the planning and development of Baltimore’s two keynote projects. Baltimore’s acclaimed “downtown renaissance” was underway. The more than three decades of dramatic revitalization along Baltimore’s waterfront that followed have been characterized by a remarkable mix of private and government investment, unique vision, determined leadership and seized opportunities.

Charles Center Inner Harbor Management, Inc. was, in effect, a private nonprofit corporation with a single client — the City of Baltimore. The corporation had a contract with the Mayor and the City Council providing for the corporation to manage the planning and execution of the Charles Center and Inner Harbor projects, under the direction of the city’s Urban Renewal and Housing agency. It performed all of the activities that a city renewal agency would normally perform in project development.

All government employees, private-sector developers and contractors, and citizens clearly knew that issues pertaining to significant urban renewal projects were to be directed to Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management, Inc.

Three individuals played key roles in the history of this corporation: J. Jefferson Miller, the original general manager of the Charles Center project and first chairman of Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management, Inc.; Martin Millspaugh, president; and Walter Sondheim Jr., the corporation’s chairman from 1972-1989.

Sondheim continued to serve as the Greater Baltimore Committee’s senior advisor and was deeply involved as a mentor to business leaders and advisor to the elected leaders of Baltimore City and the State of Maryland until his death on February 15, 2007 at the age of 98.

GBC’s Broad Range of Initiatives, Regional Impact

In addition to taking the lead in the development of Charles Center and the Inner Harbor, the GBC has initiated or played lead roles in dozens of other major projects that have greatly impacted Baltimore City and the region, including:

1955-1960s

Construction of Jones Falls Expressway

Development of Friendship Airport (now BWI)

Construction of Baltimore Civic Center

Creation of the Maryland Port Authority

Creation of the Mass Transit Administration

1970-1980s

Created the Development Credit Fund for minority business

Business partnerships for Baltimore City schools

Baltimore Convention Center

Development of Westside Skills Center

Created The Leadership program

Created the CollegeBound Foundation

Key player in long-term Orioles lease and new stadium plans

1990-2008

Location of Ravens NFL franchise in Baltimore

“Smart on Crime” strategy

Life sciences strategy for regional growth

Baltimore Convention Center expansion

Launched Greater Baltimore Tech Council

Launched Greater Baltimore Alliance

Launched Hippodrome Theater project

Homicide reduction initiative

City-State reform of Baltimore City Public Schools

Management reform of city government and Baltimore City Public Schools

Upcoming Events

In recognition of Black History Month, join regional business leaders for a conversation about Thurgood Marshall with Larry Gibson, author of Young Thurgood, The Making of a Supreme Court Justice. Gibson’s book describes the environment, people and events that shaped Thurgood Marshall’s attitudes, work habits and priorities in his formative years. The book won a 2013 International Book Award for Marshall’s biography. Gibson, a Professor of Law at the University of … Continue reading →

Join regional business leaders for a conversation with Drew Vetter, Director of the Mayor’s Office on Criminal Justice, about Baltimore City’s plan to reduce crime and improve public safety. When: Thursday, March 8, 2018; 7:30 a.m. registration, 8 a.m. program Where: Greater Baltimore Committee, 111 South Calvert Street, Suite 1700, Baltimore, MD 21202 Cost: $45 This event is open to GBC member companies and employees of GBC member companies. To be eligible for a … Continue reading →